Above: The streets of Camarillo,
California. Red dots are stop signs and the other graphic
represents stoplights.

Purpose: Driving
the car is an American time honored tradition. In theory the
quickest point between two points is a straightline, however,
with the advent of stop lights and stop signs, driving has been
transformed into a virtual art form where the quickest way tends
to be not A to B, but A to C to D to E then to B. This experiment
will test three different routes to see which is fastest in
getting from one side of town to the other.

Hypothesis: The
hypothesis of this experiment is that the straightline will not
be the fastest. The fastest route will be the route with the
least stop signs and stop lights on average. Therefore, the route
on the right side, the Daily Drive route will be the fastest.

Equipment: Required
for this experiment is a ordinary city with terrible traffic
conditions, a car with working odometer (Milage
Thingy), a stopwatch, Pen and Paper,
and calculator optional.

Procedure: The
first step is to analyze the city, and to make a point A and a
point B, of a starting place and a destination in which lie on
the same road. Then make two other routes which do not follow the
first route or each other. Time and keep distance on the first
route, record results, then reset both time and the odometer, and
return to point A. Record time, and repeat process with the other
two routes. Compare results.

Observations:

Route 1: Straightline from point A to point B.
(Ponderosa Route). The route had a total of 4 stoplights
and 2 stop signs.

Distance 1.9 Miles

Speed Limit: 40 M.P.H.

First Trip

Return Trip

Average Time

5:36

4:23

5:02

Route 2: Line starting left from origin. (Las Posas
Rd Route) This route had a total of 7 stop lights and 1
stop sign.

Conclusion: The data
has shown that the straight line is still the best route to
travel out of the three routes given. However, a fact to be noted
is on it's best try, the Los Posas route had beaten the Ponderosa
route. This fact makes it possible to claim Los Posas the better
route based on average velocity (see bottom Chart). Furthermore
on behalf of route three's defense, it may be possible to cut a
couple minutes off by avoiding the four stop lights a the end of
the trip by taking other routes, however, this is meaningless
when driving route three trapped behind somebody doing 25 M.P.H.